The author of Deuteronomy writes, "Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you" (Deuteronomy 16:17). The obstinate side of me reads that Scripture and thinks sarcastically, "Really, God? I must?! Are you going to make me?"

Thankfully, the curious and somewhat more obedient side of me kicks in and wonders, "Why is this so important to you, God, to command me to do so?"

Perhaps God isn’t saying, "You must or else." Rather, God may be sharing the truth that when we give in proportion to what we have received, there will be room in our hearts and lives to receive new and different blessings from God. In other words, you must give in order to receive the next thing God has for you.

It has been a joy to learn about the Cycle of Blessings with you and explore how we can "spend" ourselves or "give" of ourselves in holy ways that, rather than exhaust us, empties and opens us in order to refill us and re-form the world! That is no different with our last blessing that we will study in this sermon - the blessing of money. So please read over the passages, deeply ponder why the rich man in the gospel struggles so, and imagine different scenarios for how his story ends (the Bible does not tell us). And as you think about his struggle and our own struggles with the blessing of money, let the wisdom of lyrics from Fiddler on the Roof’s Broadway tune, "If I were a Rich Man" guide your thinking.

Sam and Sue share about their journey of giving to the church.

We are people of time and place. To a great extent, these can control our lives - in bad ways and good ways. In a world in which we so often focus on the bad, I invite you to focus on the good.

What are the times of your life that you find to be life-giving? Hopefully this is not just a time in the past that you reminisce about but something recurring. Why are those times life-giving? What makes them nourishing?

Let's think about place. Is there a place that you can go where you find peace, hope, empowerment? How can place provide that? What is it about your special place that inspires you?

To all of these questions, we will find differences, and that is okay, but time and place are important parts of the Church. How can our special times and places inform our understanding of Church, and how can our special times and places support the Church?

These are questions I hope you'll bring to this sermon as we consider together our blessings and holy currencies of time and place in our current sermon series, Spending Ourselves. I hope you'll take the time to read over the Scriptures for this sermon before listening so you can bring your own insights into these passages.

Rebecca shares about why she gives to support CHUMC.

This is our next sermon in the Spending Ourselves sermon series with a focus on the blessing / currency of “Gracious Leadership.”

Kate shares her story into a role of service she never would have chosen for herself.

Have you heard about the new phone app the Vatican released this week, Follow JC Go? It’s based on the game, Pokémon Go - an app that invites you to travel between the real world and the virtual world of Pokémon. Using your phone, Pokémon Go gives you the chance to explore real locations and search far and wide for Pokémon. And, according to the game, you "gotta catch’em all!"

But in Follow JC Go, rather than catch imaginary poke-creatures, you try to "catch" historical saints and biblical figures.

While the new game and its attempt to attract a younger generation made me giggle, it also has me thinking as we celebrate All Saints Sunday in worshiop this weekend. I’m wondering, how do we "catch" saints or, better yet, how do we "catch" saintliness, the quality or state of being holy?

In the game, players have to keep track of their avatars’ nutrition, hydration, and "prayer count" by collecting special objects, saying prayers for the sick in hospitals, and going into a church whenever they pass one. Certainly all of these acts can help us be holy, like God. But as you prepare to listen to this sermon, I ask you to think about one ordinary saint from your life. What quality or act of holiness did they share with you that you would like to "catch" or embody? Also, please read the Scriptures for this sermon and consider how "sabbath keeping" help us grow in saintliness.

A testimony about and invitation to St. Simeon.

In the famous movie, A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson declares, “You can’t handle the truth!” Here, he suggests that the truth is a commodity that only some of us can possess.

Jesus, on the other hand, teaches something very different. He declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” In other words, the truth isn't an object or possession but a person. If the truth is a baby born in Bethlehem, then we handle the truth gently, tenderly, not squeezing too tight. We treasure the gift but also give room for truth to grow into her / his fullness with time. Perhaps so many of our secular disagreements come because we see “truth” as power and not blessing. It becomes something to hurl at one another rather than share and discover together in a relationship.

As we continue our sermon series, Spending Ourselves: Living into the Cycle of Blessings, we will explore the blessing or currency of “TRUTH.” How does God bless us with “truth?” How is “truth” revealed to you and me? How does God want us to spend or use this blessing for good in the world? How can discovering and sharing "truth" be a way of life for us?

Read the Scriptures and see how they may redefine or expand your definition of “truth.” Then come to this sermon as we join in discovery together.

Do you ever feel "spent," be that physically, emotionally, spiritually….you name it?

"Spent," according to English grammarians, is a past participle of the verb "to spend." In other words, the action is over, done. Be it your time that is spent, your money that is spent, or your patience that is spent, the resource is at an end. You are spent, and there is nothing left to do.

God, however, is not a grammarian and need not follow the rules of our world. God has a way of blessing us and then helping us share or "spend" those blessings that do not empty us but refills us as individuals and unites us with others in this "cycle of blessings." After all, that was the model Christ showed us. Using Eric Law’s work, Holy Currencies, we will spend the next six weeks looking at the 6 blessings or "holy currencies" that God showers upon us and how we can receive, access, develop, and share them with the world. The first "Holy Currency," or blessing, we will focus on this week is "relationships." So read the gospel lesson and consider how our connection or relationship with God can connect us with others. Then read the epistle lesson, and consider the blessings that flow from the fruit of relationship with God and God’s children.

So if you are feeling spent, empty, or out, come explore the great "I AM," God of the present moment, who enables us to "spend ourselves" in a way that will refill us, others, and God's world.